Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Are you kidding me?!

Lately, I've been kinda glum about our office situation. Yes, I'd painted it. Yes, I'd decorated it. But somehow, it started feeling really cramped and...stupid. Maybe it's better to say it was "uninspiring" than stupid, but stupid really conveys my actual feelings on the whole thing.

So I'd been thinking about what I could do differently. Maybe paint everything white to lighten things up? Reorganize? Fix the (haphazard) placement of art? Change the curtains I'd had to resew 50 times just to get right (and they still looked like junk -- to me, anyway).

Then on Saturday, I had what I like to think was a major breakthrough. You see, Idle Husband likes to work in the office for at least a small part of our weekends. And I'm cool with that. He likes me to sit with him and work along on the laptop, but on the weekends, there's really not that much for me to do on the laptop. In other words, I get real bored, real quick. Also, our setup included working side-by-side. This comprised of two office chairs, a desk and kitchen table (a genius idea of mine last year -- I'm rolling my eyes right now, don't worry) slid together to expand the work surface and there you have it! Office perfection! Well, office chair number two is not all that comfortable, and in about an hour, I'd be squirming and I'd eventually find myself back in the living room without even telling IH I'd be going. And the kitchen table, while the same height as the desk and a completely great fully functioning table, just wasn't a desk. And it looked it.

Back to my major breakthrough. I was going back and forth between printing things in the office and ironing downstairs when suddenly it hit me. We have a small, loveseat-sized futon in the basement getting no sit action at all. Why don't we move it upstairs to the office, take out the second office chair and -- wait for it -- that's. where. I. can. sit. during. the. weekend. I'm already working on a laptop, this just makes so much more sense!

Idle Husband, fully on board, helped me move it and since then, I've been trying to rearrange the office so it works. I've had the desks* (desk + kitchen table, don't forget) in every possible slid-together configuration, but the room still felt full of junk. I mean, none of it is actual junk. It's not a crappy table or desk, it just wasn't working together. Yesterday, I came to the decision that it's time to let the kitchen table go. And honestly, who needs that extra space now that we have the futon? We have a large desk as it is, we don't need that extra arm (and clutter) space.

Today, I've finally figured out the layout, and I'm really digging the redesign. The futon looks so posh for some reason! I did recover it with some new slipcovers (from IKEA. It's their futon afterall) so that helped a lot, and it's super comfy. I've paired it with an orange pouffe I've had for forever, so there's a little sitting variation, too. I don't know how, but everything looks...more proper. Weird how that works, huh?

Oh! When I bought the slipcovers, I also decided to check out the clearance fabric bins at IKEA, too. If you've never been round that corner, it really pays to check it out. In fact, it's my favourite place to go in IKEA. Anyway, I managed to find two curtain panels that looked large enough, were lined, and were in a femine yet (I thought) kinda masculine print. Total score! I'm telling you! It pays! I bought the same style of curtains last year (different print) for around $100 for the two panels. This deal was only $42! How awesome is that? I have no idea why they were on clearance either. I don't see them on the website anymore, so maybe the pattern was just discontinued, but otherwise, there's nothing wrong with them at all. Win for me. The best part is that they look really great in the room. I was so worried about the size, but it actually looks like I measured it. I should hem them a bit, but I'll get to that...eventually.

Everything's coming together! Just by rearranging and decluttering, the office already looks 100% more grown up. Now I'm planning on remaking the curtains I have on the closet, I have a bunch of papers to sort through (isn't that the worst! It comes with cleaning up any office, I guess, but I'm also super terrible at filing) and then I think I'll truly be happy to spend my weeks (and weekends!) there.

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